Amber Marie Peck, a bright and compassionate 26-year-old woman, was pursuing her dream of becoming a zoologist at Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville, Florida. Her deep love for animals was a defining characteristic, and her parents remembered her as a person who was incredibly sensitive to all forms of life. In early 2006, this promising future was brutally extinguished in the remote beauty of the Ocala National Forest.
On January 3, 2006, Amber and a fellow student, 26-year-old
John Parker, drove her red GMC Jimmy into the forest for an overnight camping trip. They set up their campsite in a secluded area near a place called Hidden Pond. The following day, January 4, their paths crossed with a 19-year-old man named Leo Lancing Boatman. Boatman had taken a bus from Largo to Marion County with the express purpose of killing someone. He was armed with a stolen AK-47 assault rifle. After a brief, seemingly cordial encounter where Parker gave Boatman directions, Boatman turned the rifle on the two students. As they fled, he chased them and shot them both to death.
When Amber and John failed to return, their worried families began to search. On January 6, Amber's father discovered her car at a trailhead. The next day, Parker’s family and friends found the campsite and made a horrifying discovery. The bodies of Amber and John were found in the shallow waters of a nearby pond, where their killer had unsuccessfully attempted to submerge them. An autopsy would later show that Amber had been shot multiple times in her arms and head.
The investigation quickly led to Leo Boatman. He had confessed the murders to a friend, telling them he wanted to become a serial killer and had targeted "two preppie kids" because they would not be expected to be victims like a homeless person might. This friend reported Boatman to the police, leading to his arrest on January 10. Authorities who interviewed Boatman noted his complete lack of remorse; his primary concern upon being transported to jail was whether he would be fed.
On January 27, 2006, a grand jury indicted Boatman on two counts of first-degree murder. Prosecutors initially intended to seek the death penalty. However, as a trial approached, the families of both Amber and John agreed to a plea deal to avoid the trauma of a lengthy trial and appeals process. Amber’s parents, David and Glenda Peck, also felt their daughter, with her profound sensitivity to life, might not have wanted them to seek her killer's execution. On July 30, 2007, Boatman pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Boatman's violence, however, did not end with his incarceration. He became known as The Ocala National Forest Serial Killer as his list of victims grew behind bars. In 2009, he was convicted of the attempted murder of an inmate. In August 2010, he beat and stomped his cellmate, Ricky Morris, to death, for which he was convicted of third-degree murder and given an additional 15-year sentence.
On July 5, 2019, while imprisoned at Florida State Prison, Boatman and an accomplice, William Wells, murdered another inmate, William Chapman. The brutal attack, involving a ligature and shanks, was captured on surveillance video. For this crime, Boatman was convicted of first-degree murder. After waiving his right to be sentenced by a jury, a judge sentenced him to death on November 10, 2022. As of October 2024, Leo Lancing Boatman's appeal against his death sentence was denied, and he remains on death row.
